WebP v JPEG
WebP, what is it? As a motorsports photographer and webmaster for the PistonClick site, I’m all over image formats for publishing to the WWW. In this article, I’m going to talk about the latest image file format that you, as a photographer, should be aware of: WebP.
When I say latest, WebP has been around since 2010. However, in the last few years, Google, who acquired the company who originally developed the software, has improved the quality and released the source code. What this means is that all of the major image manipulation software programs now have the capability to export in WebP.
Take a look in your export menu; you will find it. I would recommend that you start using it for any images being published to the WWW.
So what is WebP?
WebP is a modern image format that provides superior lossless and lossy compression for images on the web. Using WebP, webmasters and web developers can create smaller, richer images that make the web faster. Basically, WebP images load faster than a JPEG image.
Why is this important to me, the motorsports photographer? For years, we have been using the JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) format. JPEG is a raster image file format that compresses images to make them smaller. JPEGs are a common way to store digital photos and are often used for sharing images online.
And this is the kicker: sharing images online. People will share, steal, or reproduce the images we publish in the JPEG format. There is not a lot we can do about that. The WebP format makes it harder to steal your images. It’s not too difficult to download a WebP image and convert it to any format. What WebP is not good at is printing, which is good for the motorsport photographer who publishes online.
JPEG is a great format and is far from dead, but for the WWW, WebP is the way forward. The PistonClick site has been using both formats for the last few years. To future-proof the site, we will be transitioning to WebP only. When you visit the site, you should see no difference in the quality of the displayed images, and you will be able to wiz through our tens of thousands of images much more quickly.
WebP Overview
Features:
- Lossy compression: Similar to JPEG, WebP can compress images while allowing some quality loss. The degree of compression is adjustable.
- Lossless compression: WebP can compress images without quality loss.
- Transparency: WebP supports an 8-bit alpha channel, which is useful for graphical images.
- Animation: WebP can support true-colour animated images.
- Metadata: WebP can support metadata in Exchangeable Image File Format (Exif) or Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) format.
Benefits:
- WebP images can be up to 30% smaller than JPEG and PNG images at the same visual quality.
- Smaller images can save bandwidth and battery life, especially on mobile devices.
- WebP images can make the web faster by reducing page size, which is a major factor in total rendering time.
Compatibility:
- WebP is supported in major browsers, including Chrome, Opera, Safari, and Android.
Here are some examples of WebP v JPEG. This image has been exported using WebP at 100%.
Our motorsport photography guides can be found here. Click the image for more.
